Chopin Piano Technique

8/3/2019 Chopin Piano Technique

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THE ALFRED CORTOT STUDY EDITION OF CHOPINS ETUDES & HOW THE ALEXANDER

TECHNIQUE CAN FACILITATE PROGRESS TOWARDS PERFORMANCE

THROUGH HIS SUGGESTED EXERCISES

A Monograph

Submitted to the Graduate Faculty of the

Louisiana State University andAgricultural and Mechanical College

in partial fulfillment of the

requirements for the degree of

Doctor of Musical Arts

In

The School of Music

by

Li-Fang Wu

B.M., Taipei Municipal Teachers College, Taiwan, 2001

M.M., Texas A&M University-Commerce, 2005

December, 2010


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ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

There were many people to whom I deeply thank for their assistance and support in completing this

dissertation. I would like to gratefully acknowledge my supervisor, Professor Gregory Sioles, and my

committee members, Dr. Willis Delony, Professor Michael Gurt and Professor Jan Grimes for their useful

suggestions and comments regarding the content of this paper. Special thanks to Professor Patricia O Neill, a

certified Alexander Technique teacher and also a great musician, who gave me wonderful Alexander lessons

and shared her experience about the Technique in support of my research topic.


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TABLE OF CONTENTS

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ii

LIST OF FIGURES iv

ABSTRACT ...vi

INTRODUCTION ...1

CHAPTER ONE: BACKGROUND INFORMATION OF ALFRED CORTOT AND

HIS STUDY EDITION OF CHOPIN ETUDES...4

CHAPTER TWO: F. MATTHIAS ALEXANDER AND THE ALEXANDER TECHNIQUE13

CHAPTER THREE: APPLICATION OF ALEXANDER TECHNIQUE IN

CORTOTS STUDY EDITION OF CHOPINS OP. 10 SET.28

CHAPTER FOUR: APPLICATION OF ALEXANDER TECHNIQUE IN

CORTOTS STUDY EDITION OF CHOPINS OP. 25 SET.60

CONCLUSION .88

BIBLIOGRAPHY .91

VITA ..94


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LIST OF FIGURES

Figure 3-1 Excerpts from Chopin, 12 Studies, Op. 10 no 1, ed. Cortot, p. 7...31

Figure 3-2 Excerpt from Conable, What Every Musician Needs to Know about the Body, p. 50...34

Figure 3-3 Excerpt from Chopin, 12 Studies, Op. 10 no 2, ed. Cortot, p. 15...35

Figure 3-4 Excerpts from Chopin, 12 Studies, Op. 10 no 3, ed. Cortot, p. 20.36




Figure 3-8 Excerpt of Chopin, 12 Studies, Op. 10 no 7, bar 1.45


Figure 3-10 Excerpts from Chopin, 12 Studies, Op. 10 no 8, ed. Cortot, p. 52-53 48


Figure 3-12 Excerpt of Chopin, 12 Studies, Op. 10 no 10, bar 1 ...52

Figure 3-13 Excerpt from Chopin, 12 Studies, Op. 10 no 11, ed. Cortot, p. 73.54


Figure 4-1 Excerpts from Chopin, 12 Studies, Op. 25 no 1, ed. Cortot, p. 7 and 9..61




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Figure 4-5 Excerpts from Chopin, 12 Studies, Op. 25 no 5, ed. Cortot, p. 32-3369







Figure 4-12 Excerpts from Chopin, 12 Studies, Op. 25 no 11, ed. Cortot, p. 7383


Figure 4-14 Excerpt of Chopin, 12 Studies, Op. 25 no 12, bar 1 ...85


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ABSTRACT

The purpose of this research paper is to study how the Alexander Technique can be applied to the

process of pianistic practicing, and specific technique issues. The sets of exercises I choose to focus on are

from the Alfred Cortot study edition of Chopins Etudes, op. 10 and op. 25. The Alexander Technique is a

method of releasing unnecessary muscular tension when performing every action, including motions in piano

playing. Therefore, the preparatory exercises suggested by Alfred Cortot in his study editions can be more

effectively executed by applying the Alexander Technique principles.

This research paper is divided into four chapters. The first chapter commences with background

information about the teaching edition of Chopins Etudes by Alfred Cortot. As an exemplary pianist and

teacher, Cortots contribution to the development of piano technique was and remains of landmark

significance. It is valuable and important to examine how his systematic methods can lead pianists to conquer

technical problems and refine their performance.

Before focusing on the Alexander Technique in two sets of Chopins Etudes, the second chapter will

provide readers with a brief biography of Frederick Matthias Alexander, founder of the Alexander Technique.

The chapter will then go on to reveal how he established the Technique and shaped it into a complete

curriculum whose goal is to re-educate the way in which physical aspects of human life are experienced.

Finally, this chapter examines the main principles of the Alexander Technique and its applications for

musicians and pianists.


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After examining Cortots study edition of the Chopin Etudes and establishing the value of the Alexander

Technique for pianists, in the next two chapters I apply core ideas of the Technique to pianistic practicing of

the individual Chopin Etudes through Alfred Cortots preparatory exercises. Chapter 3 focuses on Op. 10

Etudes. Chapter 4 focuses on Op. 25. It is hoped that the results of this research study will be beneficial for

pianists, and facilitate progress in learning Chopins Etudes by applying principles of the Alexander

Technique.


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INTRODUCTION

At one point or another in their educational or professional careers, a high percentage of musicians

complain of a variety of muscle-related problems tied to performance. These problems can easily lead to

injury if ignored. Though instructors and doctors may help fix a problem temporarily, it tends to be a

recurring condition requiring regular attention. Being a pianist and well-practiced student for almost 25 years,

I too have suffered from various afflictions and their subsequent frustrations until discovering the Alexander

Technique. Recently, less than a year ago, I began taking Alexander lessons with Professor Patricia ONeill, a

skilled Alexander teacher and voice professor at Louisiana State University. I soon became much more aware

of how my body functions. By learning the Alexander Technique, I changed the way I applied myself and put

into practice indirect changes to my performance habits. The Alexander Technique encompasses a wide range

of instructions and is taught differently by different teachers. In order to understand how one is mishandling

oneself, engaging the expertise of an Alexander teacher is highly recommended. This teacher can help realign

your posture through a hands-on approach that helps performers assess the merits of their habits objectively.

This research paper began with my experiences in overcoming the technical difficulties I encountered in

performance. Over the years, there have been some theses discussing the application of Alexander Technique

in piano performance, including the most recent two:An Exploration of Potential Contributions of the

Alexander Technique to Piano Pedagogy1 by Patricia Furst Santiago in 2004, andA Study of Tension in

1. Patricia Furst Santiago, An Exploration of Potential Contributions of the Alexander Technique to Piano Pedagogy (PhDdiss., University of London, 2004).


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Piano Playing: Approaches to Piano Technique and Examinations of Alexander Technique and Feldenkrais

Method in Avoiding Problems of Tension2 by Kuniko Ishida in 2003. Each provides many valuable

viewpoints of the Technique that focus on piano teaching and learning. However, in this research paper, I will

explore and apply the Technique to specific technical difficulties occurring in the twenty-four Chopin Etudes.

I have chosen the Chopin etudes because they are among the most technically challenging in the works

piano literature. With regard to their expressive qualities and exploration of tone color, Chopins etudes are

the quintessence of the virtuoso character etude. For pianists, these works are not easy to perform perfectly

and injury is possible if the pianist does not have a honed awareness of his body and its tendencies to misuse.

Thus, I have also employed for this paper Alfred Cortots perspective on technique as found in his study

edition. Alfred Cortot is widely admired as one of the finest pianists of the twentieth century. He established

systematic methods to study difficult passages in proper sequence, reducing complex figurations to their

basic elements. This rational process in learning a whole musical piece is similar to the key principle of the

Alexander Techniqueone after the other, all together.3 It merits discussion because the patient and slow,

and even tedious process of learning challenging compositions mirrors the ideas embraced by the Alexander

Technique. Therefore, Cortots preparatory exercises form an ideal laboratory for study.

2. Kuniko Ishida, A Study of Tension in Piano Playing: Approaches to Piano Technique and Examinations of AlexanderTechnique and Feldenkrais Method in Avoiding Problems of Tension (Masters thesis, Griffith University, 2003).

3. Pedro de Alcantara,Indirect Procedures: A Musicians Guide to the Alexander Technique (New York: Oxford UniversityPress, 1997), 160.


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Ultimately, and due to unique human characteristics, each performer may experience different problems

and tensions when facing a variety of highly technical passages. In this paper, a variety of potential technical

problems will be discussed and some basic principles will be proposed according to each individual s

pianistic technique. An enhanced understanding of the body and its best use is a slow learning process that

entails a new way of facing these challenges. But with focused attention, pianists can steadily improve their

ability to circumvent muscle-related troubles.


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CHAPTER ONE

BACKGROUND INFORMATION OF ALFRED CORTOT AND HIS STUDY EDITION OF

CHOPIN ETUDES

Alfred Denis Cortot (September 26, 1877June 15, 1962)

I am a man who has always believed that life is not made of what one finds in it,

but of what one brings to it.4 A. C.

Music, for Cortot, as well as life, is made of what one brings to it. Music will live forever, said Cortot,

same as Homer or Shakespeare, and will never become a lost art. It will always exist because it is an

expression of mans heart. Beauty can never perish.5 Although he was a conductor and teacher, Cortot is

admired as one of the finest pianists of the 20 th century and famous for his brilliant technique and expressive

lyricism, especially in Romantic repertoire. Furthermore, his contribution to the development of piano

technique was and remains of landmark significance. Among his writings, Cortot left an essay about

interpretation, Cours dinterprtation, 1934 (English translated version as Studies in Musical Interpretation),

and two books, La musique franaise de piano, 1930-48, and Aspects de Chopin, 1949 (In Search of Chopin).

Alfred Cortot was born in Nyon, Switzerland, to a French father and a Swiss mother. He entered the

Paris Conservatory and studied piano under mile Decombes, one of Chopins disciples, and Louis Dimer.

During the period in Conservatory, he took composition lessons with Raoul Pugno and Xavier Leroux. In

4. Bernard Gavoty,Alfred Cortot: Portraits by Roger Hauert, Great Concert Artists (Geneva/Monaco: Ren ister et UnionEuropenne dditions, 1955), 3.

5. Alexander osloff, A Visit with Alfred Cortot, Music Educators Journal48, no. 4 (February-March, 1962): 142,http://www.jstor.org/stable/3389558 (accessed May 19, 2010).
http://www.jstor.org/stable/3389558http://www.jstor.org/stable/3389558http://www.jstor.org/stable/3389558


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1896, he won apremier prix for piano, and then made his debut successfully playing Beethovens Piano

Concerto No. 3 at the Concerts Colonne in Paris. From 1898, he devoted himself to conducting and

performing as a concert pianist. He became an assistant conductor at theBayreuth Festival. In 1902, he

conducted the Paris premire of Gtterdmmerung by Wagner. He showed great enthusiasm for Wagners

music, memorizing all his operas and playing them in reduction at the piano.6 Later on, he established the

Paris Symphony Orchestra, the Orchestre Philharmonique, and the Chamber Orchestra of the Ecole

Normale.7

Although he was occupied with concert tours all over Europe and the USA, he was very enthusiastic

about academic teaching. In addition, he also loved playing chamber music. In 1905, with cellist Pablo

Casals and violinist Jacques Thibaud, he formeda wonderful trio and established a great reputation wherever

they concertized. Fortunately, there are some high quality chamber music recordings left by them. These

include Mendelssohn D minor Trio, Schumann D minor Trio, BeethovensArchduke, B-flat majorTrio and

Schuberts B-flat major Trio.8In 1907, he was appointed by Gabriel Faur as a piano professor at the Paris Conservatory and stayed

there until 1923. His pupils included Clara Haskil, Yvonne Lefbure, Dinu Lipatti, Vlado Perlemuter, and

6. Harold C. Schonberg, The Great Pianists (New York: A Fireside Book Published by Simon and Schuster, 1963), 381.

7. Gavoty,Alfred Cortot, 30.

8. David Dubal, The Art of the Piano: Its Performers, Literature, and Recordings, 2nd ed. (Orlando: Harcout Brace &Company, 1989), 49-50.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clara_Haskilhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yvonne_Lef%C3%A9burehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dinu_Lipattihttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vlado_Perlemuterhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vlado_Perlemuterhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dinu_Lipattihttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yvonne_Lef%C3%A9burehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clara_Haskil


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Marguerite Monnot. 9 In 1919, he founded the cole Normale de Musique de Paris, and served as the

director and president. With outstanding faculty, they covered large areas in music history and theory. The

interpretation master classes offered by Cortot were admired by large numbers of musicians. 10 Cortot once

shared his wonderful experience of having a lesson with Anton Rubinstein at Dimers house in Paris. He

played the SonataAppassionata by Beethoven. After he finished, a long silence ensuedand this frustrated

Cortots enthusiasm for playing. When he tried to find his way to the door, Rubinstein caught him and said

sincerely My child, dont forget what I am going to tell you: Beethoven cannot be playedhe must be

recreated.11 Cortot was deeply inspired by what Rubinstein said to him and remembered thisevery time he

gave lessons to young musicians. He said, There are two possible attitudes when one is confronted with a

great work of artthe motionless and the adventurous. Playing as the composer wished or following the

tradition of his pupilswhat does that involve? What is needed is to give free rein to the imagination, to

recreate the composition and make it live. That is what interpretation means.12

For Cotot, music must

live in us and with us. The wonderful moment which takes place from interpreter through music recreates a

beauty of Nature.13

9. Martin Cooper and Charles Timbrell, Cortot, Alfred,Grove Music Online, Oxford Music Online,http://www.oxfordmusiconline.com/subscriber/article/grove/music/06587(accessed May 21, 2010).

10. Dubal, The Art of the Piano, 50.

11. Gavoty,Alfred Cortot, 12-13.

12. Ibid., 13.

13. Alfred Cortot, Studies in Musical Interpretation, trans. Robert Jaques (London: G. G. Harrap, 1937; reprint, New York:Da Capo Press, 1989), 18.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marguerite_Monnothttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C3%89cole_Normale_de_Musique_de_Parishttp://www.oxfordmusiconline.com/subscriber/article/grove/music/06587http://www.oxfordmusiconline.com/subscriber/article/grove/music/06587http://www.oxfordmusiconline.com/subscriber/article/grove/music/06587http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C3%89cole_Normale_de_Musique_de_Parishttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marguerite_Monnot


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About the preparation before the lessons, Cortot made a point that students should study all the

information, including historical background, philosophical thoughts, and poetic and literary associations

regarding the music and composers they played.14 For lessons, he even asked students to submit an analysis

paper of the music. He called it a geographical map.15 He made a guide for the pupil to follow when

working on an analytical sketch for each piece. Furthermore, Cortot thought that pupils should point out the

distinguishing characteristics of harmonic analysis, the character and meaning of the work from their point of

view. Aesthetic and technical observations should also serve as an important guide for theinterpreter.16

Thomas Manshardt, a private pupil of Cortot from 1957 until his death in 1962, recalled that the pianist,

according to Cortot, must labour ceaselessly to identify himself with the personality of the composer and

with the nature of the civilization whence his works emerged, but it must be understood that musical notation

is at best a mere sketch, a mere implying of what might be realized by the interpreter.17 He thought proper

preparations are needed to achieve the most ideal performance, but musicians must bring this knowledge out

from their hearts and through their lively fingers.

Cortot is best known for his performances of the Romantic piano repertoire. Although there was a

reaction, arising of impressionism and neoclassicism, against Germanic Romantic music in the early

14. Nicolas Slonimsky,Bakers Biographical Dictionary of Twentieth-Century Classical Musicians, ed. Laura Kuhn andDennis McIntire (New York: Schirmer Books, 1997), 261.


16. Cortot, Studies in Musical Interpretation, 19.

17. Thomas Manshardt,Aspects of Cortot(Hexham: Appian Pulications and Recordings, 1994), 11.


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twentieth century during his youth, the Germanic Romantic tradition still remained strong in France. Cortots

piano teachers in Paris were the group who centered on the works of Romanticism. Cortot recalled this group

as The Generation of my teachers.

represented a direct link with the heyday of the Romanticism. I learned what Chopin

was like from Mme. Camille Dubois, Mathias and Decombes. I heard Liszt spoken

about as though he were still alive: Faur, Saint-Sans.and Mme. Diemer had known

him and often heard him play. A little later, I was present on many occasions when

Cosima Wagner reminisced about her father Mme. Schumann was still alive when

I gave my Vienna debut recital several years after this. These now legendary figures

populated my youth like familiar spirits. For me romanticism was not at all a mythical

era but rather a near-contemporary one. Is it any wonder, then, that I believed in it

whole-hearted?18

His playing revealed strong personal lyricism and poetry, and transcendental elegance. The spirit of

Romanticism represented through Cortot seems somehow innovative and bold, especially with regard to

Chopin.19 One of his pupils, Magda Tagliaferro, said, The images that he conjured up were absolutely

visionary.20 David Dubal, a Steinway artist and professor teaching piano literature at the Juilliard School

since 1983, commented that:

18. Karen M. Taylor, Alfred Cortot: His Interpretive Art and Teachings (DMA diss., Indiana University, 1988), 204.

19. James Giles, Chopin and Alfred Cortot (DMA diss., The Manhattan School of Music, 2000), 1.



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Cortot was one of the originals in the history of interpretation. He was highly unpredictable

and relied heavily on inspiration. There was always a new flash of insight, a left-hand caress,

even a countermelody of his own invention. The audience felt included in a special intimate

moment. Everything was heightened with an uncanny elegance. He was so Romantic, truly the

most youthfully Romantic of the great pianists. He had an inspired sense of rubato. For Cortot,

music was aspiration, a reaching for the unknown. He reached for elusive lights and shadows. If

ever a pianist had the power to seduce and intoxicate, it was Cortot.21

There are a series of highly acclaimed recordings left by him. These include Schumanns piano concerto,

Etudes symphoniques,Kreisleriana, and Papillons; Chopins Ballades, Preludes, Etudes and Sonata in B

minor; Francks Prlude, choral et fugue (1929) and Saint-Sanss Fourth Concerto.22 Although he covered

an immense repertoire in his career, Cortot centered on his favorite Chopin pieces. There are various versions

in his recordings of Chopin, including Twenty-Four Preludes, Op. 28, Twenty-Four Etudes, Three Nouvelles

Etudes, Four Impromptus, Waltzes, Scherzi, Nocturnes, Barcarolleetc.23 There is perhaps nothing which

reveals Cortots sorcery better than do theseChopins waltzes and preludes, remarked by his biographer,

Bernard Gavoty. He brings to them that spirited elegance and mournful charm which make them so much

more than mere fine-cut jewels: in his hands they become paintings or visions. He created and revealed in

every moment he touched the piano a delicate and exquisite poets imagination. He said to himself, I am


22. Cooper and Timbrell, Cortot, Alfred.

23. Dubal, 51-52.


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Cortot: I am playing this waltz; now he is murmuring, I am Chopin: I dreamt it.24 We can feel intensely,

his enthusiasm and admiration for this Polish master in his book,In Search Of Chopin, and in the prose of his

study editions of Chopins music as well.

Although a concert pianist for many years already, Cortot never felt easy controlling the keyboard, at

least not until 1937. The movements of his gestures and fingers did not always satisfy him. What he deemed

ungraceful technique and clumsy postures caused him long tedious hours of practicing every morning. For

that reason, he became interested in how to educate the hands in both physical and psychological ways. 25 It

was then that he established the systematic technical method put forth in his book, Principes rationnels de la

technique pianistique, and also created his study edition of Chopin, which will be mentioned in more detail

later in this chapter.

For Cortots teaching repertoire, recalled some students, he liked to assign the etudes that combined both

didactic and musical values to a concert repertoire such as those of Chopin, Liszt and Moszkowski. By

working on those concert-type studies, pianists can develop their technique and the sound capabilities of the

instrument. Cortot asked students to prepare different Chopin etudes for each lesson.26 Collecting his many

years teaching experience on those etudes and other major Romantic repertoire, Cortot contributed his own

editions to a large collection of piano music by Chopin, Schumann and Liszt. Those study editions, entitled

24. Gavoty,Alfred Cortot, 6-7.

25. Roger Nichols, Alfred Cortot, 1877-1962, The Musical Times 123, no. 1677 (November, 1982): 762-763,http://www.jstor.org/stable/961596 (accessed May 19, 2010).

26. Taylor, Alfred Cortot, 404.
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Editions de Travail, included seventy-six volumes. He supplied some didactic prose, beneficial technical

advice, and original annotations with aesthetic commentary, discussions of character, interpretation, style,

elements and expressive considerations.27 These ideas, thought processes, along with preparatory exercises

constructed on difficult passages, could lead pianists to conquer the technical problems and refine the

performance.

Cortots first complete study edition, completed in 1915 when he was still teaching at Conservatory, is

devoted to Chopins Etudes, Op. 10 and Op. 25.28 In this edition, his emphasis was more on technical

exercises than interpretative commentary. In the Preface to his first French edition, he expressed clearly the

principle for his study methods: La loi essentielle de cette mthod est de travailler, non pas le passage

difficile, mais la difficult contenue dans ce passage en lui restituant son caractere lmentaire.The

essential principle of this method is to study not the difficult passage but the difficulty itself, reducing it to its

basic element.29

From this point on, he tried to bring out a concept of practicing process that was in proper

sequence. If musicians want to solve or refine their technique, they need only look back to the small basic

elements in a rational way. However, rules may indeed be set down concerning the manual practice of an

Art: but personality and taste have never followed rules,wrote Cortot in his Chopin Etudes edition.30

27. Taylor, Alfred Cortot, 6.

28. Ibid., 416.

29. Ibid., 417.

30. Frdric Chopin, foreword to 12 Studies, Op. 10, for Piano, ed. Alfred Cortot, trans. M. Parkinson (Italy: ditionsSalabert, 2000).


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Finally, Cortot synthesized his general observations on piano technique in his book, Principes rationnels

de la technique pianistique (Rational Principles of Pianoforte Technique), 1928. He brought up an important

point in the progress of instrumental teaching that the mechanical and long-repeated practice of a difficult

passage has been replaced by the reasoned study of the difficulty contained therein, reduced to its elementary

principle.31 He divided systematic exercises into five categories: 1) equality, independence and mobility of

the fingers; 2) scales-arpeggios; 3) double notes and polyphonic playing; 4) the technique of extensions; 5)

wrist technique and execution of chords. The immediate goal of those warm-up exercises is to loosen the

playing mechanism, though the pianist can apply those ideas directly into playing the main repertoire.

From those study editions and a unique book dealing with technical issues, we can see how detailed and

strict his distinctive methodical approach is. In his mind, this approach should be worked on diligently and

efficiently to achieve a worthy performance of a piece. Although Cortot had great hands and could achieve

the technical fireworks the music needed, he never played like a technician, but always with an intellectual

command.32 To become a pianist one must be possessed by music, said Cortot.33

31. Alfred Cortot, foreword toRational Principles of Pianoforte Technique, trans. R. Le Roy-Metaxas (New York: OliverDitson, 1930).

32. Schonberg, The Great Pianists, 383.

33. osloff, A Visit with Alfred Cortot, 142.


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CHAPTER TWO

F. MATTHIAS ALEXANDER AND THE ALEXANDER TECHNIQUE

Frederick Matthias Alexander (January 20, 1869 October 10, 1955)

Frederick Matthias Alexander was an Australian orator who established the so-called Alexander

Technique, termed after his death. The development of this teaching technique came about through the loss of

his voice as a Shakespearean actor. The Technique is a method of observing how a performer uses his own

body and refining sensory awareness through conscious bodily coordination.

Alexander, F. M. as he was generally known to friends and followers, was born in Wynyard, on the

north-western coast of Tasmania on 20 January 1869. He was a premature baby, struggling to survive from

his birth. Throughout his early education, his unusual temperament made him a difficult pupil. For him to

learn, knowledge had to be well-explained to him. At the age of his sixteen, F. M. once said that he had

never understood how it was possible to believe anything without first experiencing it.34 F. M. later recalled

that his belief in experientialism would direct the development of the Alexander Technique.35

Life in Wynyard for F. M. was quite simple. Apart from school, he loved his grandfathers country estate,

where he developed an obsession with horses, and enjoyed Nature. Another interest during his teenage years

was classical drama. His interest in theatre was intense, particularly with Shakespeare. He moved to

34. Michael Bloch, F. M. The Life of Frederick Matthias Alexander: Founder of the Alexander Technique (London: A Little,Brown, 2004), 20.

35. Ibid, 20.


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Melbourne at the age of twenty with a sense of adventure and aspirations for a career on the stage in the

future. As a Shakespearean actor specializing in recitation, he gave recitals and performed in plays touring

around Australia and Tasmania, soon acquiring an excellent reputation. Nevertheless, good times didnt last

long. Around late 1891, he began to experience poor health. F. M. was compelled by illness to reduce his

workload on stage. After recovering most of his health around the second half of 1892, one symptom still

persistedhoarseness. As a Shakespearean orator, his career on stage was hampered by this serious vocal

problem. He sought some help from doctors and vocal experts and was advised to rest his voice. It had some

effect, but the hoarseness returned again while reciting on stage. He tried to figure out what caused this

problem when using, or rather misusing, the mechanisms of his throat, because he was really sure that it

must be something which I do with my throat when reciting, which brings about this condition.36

Alexanders process of self discovery is documented in the opening chapter Evolution of a Technique

of his third book, The Use of the Self(1932). During his self-observation in mirrors where he arranged for a

full view of his throat, he noticed he had three tendencies which he saw himself doing when reciting. He

noticed that as soon as I started to recite, I tended to pull back the head, depress the larynx and suck in

breath through the mouth in such a way as to produce a gasping sound. 37 This series of habitual responses

was triggered by the act of recitation, and those immediate responses affected the functioning of his entire

self. After long, thoughtful experimentation, he realized that the solution lay in seeking to inhibit(that is,

36. Patrick Macdonald, The Alexander Technique: As I See It(Brighton: Rahula Books, 1989), 38.

37. Frederick Matthias Alexander, The Use of the Self, The Books of F. Matthias Alexander (New York: Irdeat, 1997), 413.
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refrain from doing) what was wrong rather than do what was right, in relying on conscious control rather

than unconscious habit, and in focusing the mind on the means whereby rather than the end to be gained.38

Such principles will be explored in much more detail later on in this chapter.

Then, early in 1895, he returned to the stage with confidence during every performance. His problem

with hoarseness was no longer a concern. In successive recitals, he mastered his vocal troubles and

perfected his recitation act with considerable acclaim.39 While pursuing a world-famous reputation as an

actor and a teacher for his Technique, he moved to London and remained there for 10 years, from 1904 to

1914. Alexander taught his new method to many musicians and actors in London and recorded some of his

successful cases in pamphlets. F. M. intended to publish a book to explain his Technique while still in

Australia. But after arriving in London, he recorded each lesson in more detail, contributing findings from his

own experiences as well as those he discovered in individual students. In October 1910, he published his first

book,Mans Supreme Inheritance. Although this book didnt follow a very good logical progression, he still

tried to give readers his ideas about the development of mankind and the inadequacy of the physical culture

and its exercises.40 Civilization had made a normal body a problem, said the English and Biblical

Literature professor at Columbia University, Richard Morse Hodge, after reviewing Alexanders first book.

Mr. Hodge also annotated that the author furnished the evidence necessary to show that we can use our

38. Bloch, F. M. The Life of Frederick Matthias Alexander, 35.

39. Ibid., 39-40.

40. Ibid., 88.


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bodies, and our minds, therefore, to much greater advantage than most of us do, and that the way lies in a

further general progress of the race from instinctive guidance to conscious control.41 Besides this, he gave a

number of instructive examples to explain what conscious control and inhibition meant from his

Technique in this book.

Due to the First World War, beginning in 1914, he split his time between England and the United States

until 1924, maintaining his practicing, teaching and writing about the Technique. During those ten years, F.

M. became acquainted with the famous American philosopher and educationist, John Dewey (1859-1952)

and formed a close friendship with him. F. M. was deeply influenced by Deweys philosophy in different

ways.42 In F. M.s second book, Constructive Conscious Control of the Individual (1923), his discoveries

evolved into a system of universal philosophy and more coherent theoretical thoughts. Dewey had offered to

read and contribute an introduction to this book. He made a point that Alexanders system differed

completely from other remedial systems in that it deals not with cures but with causes; the validity of his

system is constantly being tested by experiment. Dewey was also strongly influenced by F. M.s teaching.

The greatest benefit he got from lessons was the ability to stop and think before acting.43 Dewey

concluded that Mr Alexander has demonstrated a new scientific principle with respect to the control of

41. Richard Morse Hodge, What is Mans Supreme Inheritance?,The New York Times, May 5, 1918,http://query.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=9806E4DC103BEE3ABC4D53DFB3668383609EDE(accessed June 12, 2010).

42. Pedro de Alcantara, Appendix C: F. M. Alexander: A Biographical Sketch toIndirect Procedures: A Musicians Guide tothe Alexander Technique (New York: Oxford University Press, 1997), 283.

http://query.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=9806E4DC103BEE3ABC4D53DFB3668383609EDEhttp://query.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=9806E4DC103BEE3ABC4D53DFB3668383609EDEhttp://query.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=9806E4DC103BEE3ABC4D53DFB3668383609EDE


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human behavior as important as any principle which has ever been discovered in the domain of external

nature.44

F. M. returned to London in 1924 and moved into his country house in Kent, where he first constituted

his school. He remained devoted to the study of his Technique. He began to translate his theories into a

complete curriculum for the teaching of children, called Little School, and a teacher-training course.45 He

instructed many students, including famous actors, philosophers, writers, musicians, and scientists. However,

one strong category of F. M.s supporters was doctors who had practical experience with the Technique and

were convinced by the work.46 There is a letter, signed by nineteen doctors, published in theBritish Medical

Journal on 29 May 1937. It was a petition proclaiming that the British Medical Association should

eventually include the Alexander Technique in the medical curriculum.47 Although the Alexander Technique

is not a therapy for patients, it really helped people have different attitudes toward their illness and prevented

things from going wrong.48

Aside from his great enthusiasm for teaching, F. M. continued to put his ideas and discoveries in writing.

In 1931, he completed his third book, The Use of the Self, published in 1932. Again, the famous philosopher

John Dewey wrote the introduction to this book. He made a strong statement to support this Technique with


45. Alcantara, Appendix C toIndirect Procedures, 283.

46. Macdonald, The Alexander Technique, 101.

47. Bloch, 165.

48. Alcantara, 277-278.


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each lesson offered by F. M. as a laboratory experimental demonstration. He also noted that the Technique

bears the same relation to education that education bears to all other human activities.49 As mentioned

earlier, there is one chapter in which F. M. depicted in detail his discoveries, which led to solving his own

vocal problems. Ten years later, came his fourth and last book, The Universal Constant in Living, in 1941. In

this book, he illustrated his work with more medical cases and showed how his students dealt with their

problems in progress. Compared to his first three books, he stressed the importance of the concept of

inhibition much more than before, shaping his Technique into a more comprehensive system, which reflected

forty-five years worth of experiences.50

The Alexander Technique

From early on, F. M. Alexander believed the body had an innate intelligence that seeks balance and a

natural rhythm. When that fundamental rhythm is contorted, mental and physical disease are the results. The

Technique shows people how to re-educate themselves with correct sensory awareness and strategies of how

they could use the whole body.51 For his technique, Alexander developed some special terms and principles

to convey his ideas in practice. When learning the Technique, there are six principles we should understand:

Use of the Self, Primary Control, Awareness, Inhibition, Direction and Action.


50. Ibid., 181.

51. Macdonald, The Alexander Technique, xiii.


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Use of the Self

Humans always work as a whole, indivisibly with body, mind, and spirit interwoven. In the Technique,

Alexander avoided using words like body mechanic and mental states to separate the Man. Instead, he

created the self as a unity, and described its use and functioning in practice in his book, TheUse of the Self.

Pedro de Alcantara, cellist and master Alexander teachers said that Alexander Technique is not a method of

physical relaxation, or posture, or the use of the body, but of the use of the self.52 Generally speaking, our

posture is a position we present to the world. However, within the self, it is linked to a set of attitudes,

thoughts, and feelings. For example, when you observe the way people speak, timbre, intonation,

gesticulation, diction and vocabulary are different from person to person. The way one uses their self while

speaking is unique and reflects who they are.53 Alexander notes that when talk[ing] about a mans

individuality and character: its the way he uses himself.54

What causes the problem ofill-health? When a musician has intermittent aches in his right shoulder,

he is often diagnosed by a doctor as suffering from tendonitis. The doctor applies some remedy, such as

physiotherapy, drugs, surgery, or he recommends some program of exercise and rest. After running through a

series of medical therapies, in most cases, the problem still remains and sometimes gets worse. However,

Alexander found that the cause of our troubles [is] not in what is done to us, but in what we do to

52. Alcantara,Indirect Procedures, 9-11.

53. Ibid., 12-13.

54. Richard Williams, Age of the Rocket Man,Independent on Sunday Review, June 20, 1993.


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ourselves.55 That is what Alexander called misuse of the self. In the case of the musicians previously

mentioned shoulder ache, we can say that he misused the muscles in his shoulders, and this misuse affects his

functioning. However, what is the cause of misuse? From Alexanders discoveries, the unconscious habit of

end-gaining affects the functioning the whole self. The young singer whose goal is simply to sing loudly, for

instance, is end-gaining if she neglects the possible means to achieve the goal and instead straining her vocal

chords and sounding muscles. Conversely, consideration of the means-whereby, a principle of the Technique,

guides her toward an indirect way to sing loudly that does not cause her to misuse herself. Stopping her

misuse is the key to achieving health and balanced use.

Primary Control

A mechanism of alignment that affects the total use of the self involves the relationship between head,

neck and backa relationship Alexander called Primary Control. According to him, this is a master reflex

of the body, so that by organizing it one can modify all the postural relationships throughout the body.56

All

partial patterns, such as movement of limbs, hands or fingers, should be performed in harmony with the

head-neck-back relationship. Therefore, Primary Controlshould take priority over all localized action.57

There is no right position to hold ones head, neck and back. How to use the Primary Control well depends to

how one coordinates the relationship of head to neck and head and neck to the back. Most people use their

55. Alcantara,Indirect Procedures, 5.


57. Alcantara, 26.


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Primary Control unconsciously, but may misuse it because of the habit of end-gaining. Awareness of how one

uses their Primary Control may feel strange at first, but they will appreciate how beautifully it works when

they are moving gracefully or standing with poise.58 Described below is how Primary Control works by

following the laws of Nature inherent within the structure of human beings:

Your active understanding of the relationship of head, neck, and back is fluid both in

the short and in the long term. And so it should be. The spine is neither contracted

not slack. The back is lengthening and widening, the shoulders are broadening. The

neck remains an extension of the spine, allowing the head to move freely on the joint

between skull and neck. Their entire bodies are oriented upwards, and their energies

outwards. There are no physical exercises to improve the Primary Control. Instead,you must first stop contracting your head into your neck, and then prevent this

contraction from recurring.59

There are many ways to improve use of Primary Control. Among them is the hands-on approach by an

Alexander teacher who puts forward the most effective way to address different kinds of misuses. The

Technique does not teach positions. It teaches students to see how Primary Control regulates total

coordination of self in normal positions and how uses affect functioning.60

Awareness

As mentioned in the previous section, conscious awareness of the use ofones Primary Control may feel

unusual. Why? There may be something one misunderstands or ignores, without knowing it. For instance,

58. Brennan, The Alexander Technique Manual, 15.

59. Alcantara, 30-31.



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when playing a sonata in the studio, a colleague may tell you that you rush too much for the lyrical second

theme section. Right at that moment, one will likely react with this response, Really? I think I play in tempo.

Sometimes the tempo is rushed but one is not alerted to it because offaulty sensory awareness. As Alexander

wrote in his second book, Constructive Conscious Control of the Individual, our sensory peculiarities are the

foundation of what we think of as our opinions, and that, in fact, nine out of ten of the opinions we form are

rather the result of what we feel than what we think.61 Experienced Alexandrians will likely say, you think

you dont rush the tempo, but you should accept that you may be wrong when you feel right.62 Nevertheless,

Alexander believed that performers could re-educate themselves in order to make their sensory awareness

more reliable.

What causes our sensory perception to become unreliable? The most important reason for the Alexander

teacher is misuse of the self. Pedro de Alcantara addressed this issue:

The freer a body part is, the better able it is to sense accurately what it is doing. When

you misuse yourself you over-contract some parts of the body, and leave others too

slack. The whole self suffers, including head, neck, and back. Every time you contract

your neck you disturb its many proprioceptors and distort their feedback. Misuse, in

other words, always causes a distortion of sensory perception.63

61. Frederick Matthias Alexander, Constructive Conscious Control of the Individual, The Books of F. Matthias Alexander(New York: Irdeat, 1997), 304.


63. Ibid., 42-43.


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The only way one can re-educate and improve ones sensory awareness is to stop doing something

wrongstop misusing ones body. If one is misusing oneself it must be an advantage to be able to correct

this misuse. If ones sensory appreciation is falseall else is false.64 When you change your use, the new

experience will come with a new sensation. Doing something new and different provides perspective on what

was done before. Now, there is sensory awareness of what was felt after it happened.65

Inhibition

Stopping misuse is the key to preventing end-gaining. To improve the Primary Control, you must first

stop contracting your head into your neck, and then prevent this contraction from recurring. 66 As mentioned

in the Awareness section, new experience helps us become aware of what happened before, which was indeed

wrong. Now we should learn to be able to inhibitbefore it happens. The Alexander Technique is not merely a

method to improve the use of the self and the sensory perception. By practicing the Technique, we learn how

to pause before action and make a choice, which is better for our life.67

When deciding to do something, one triggers a set of automatic reactions with habitual misuses. The first

step in changing use is to stop wanting to do something as it is understood with accumulated memory.68 For

example, ignoring the temptation to play loudly as usual, is what is called inhibition in the Alexander

64. Macdonald, The Alexander Technique, xiii.


66. Ibid., 31.


68. Alcantara, 64.


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Technique. As with trying to play loudly, this wish makes the body responsible for the end goal and readies it

for action. One discovers when acting on this wish, the shoulders raise up, the head contracts into the neck,

the arms stiffen and breathing becomes more rapid. These are automatic reactions with habitual misuse. The

result is then the inability to play as loudly as one wishes, collapsing Primary Control and causing possible

injury to oneself. To inhibit interference with the Primary Control is very near, in character, to inhibiting the

wishes, desires, and motivations that set up the interference in the first place.69 Before reacting instinctively

in any given situation or with any given stimulus, inhibition should begin with preparation and be continuous

once each action takes place.Inhibition is both a concept and a process in Technique.

Direction

When deciding to do something, there is a command delivered by the brain. Then the body responds.

This is the simple and logical description of how the self responds to understanding of five senses: sight,

hearing, taste, touch, and smell. Besides these five senses, there is one more element that affects use of the

selfthought. For Alexandrians, think up is a very important psychological principle in relation to the total

use of the self. There is a constant connection between brain and musclebetween what I think and what I

do. It is impossible to say of an act that it is purely mental or purely physical.70 This connection, linking

thought with action, is what is called direction in Technique.


70. Ibid., 55.


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Learning to direct is not to control the mind or the body. As Alexander thought, the word directing is

consciously to give a mental order to your body, so that your body will respond to what you tell it to do rather

than working by habit alone.71 When directing is healthy, it results in a good use of self with perfect

balancethat is well directed. In the Technique, one learns how to give more than one direction to activities

at a given time. Before one can handle thinking up and reacting at the same time, one needs to break

down reactions step by step. A good direction, which can be understood in a precise way by the self, should

include three elementsactions, body parts and orientation in space or a muscular sense. 72 An illustration of

how to verbalize various directions for the Primary Control is as follows: Let the neck be free, let the head go

forward and up, let the back lengthen and widen, one after the other, all together.73 These directions energize

the body in a different way and make one change ones use at will. To direct is to willto intend, to choose,

to decide.74

Action

From Alexanders discoveries in Technique, end-gaining causes a habitual action, misuse of the self. An

inhabitual gesture, based on the means-whereby principle, is accomplished by the employing of the Alexander

processes of Primary Control, self-awareness, inhibition, and direction. After practicing these processes one




74. Alcantara, 64.


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after another, all together several times, we improve use of the self in a good wayvia the same processes

employed by Alexander to find a solution to his vocal problem. At that critical moment to DO something, the

body wont easily feel perfect balance at all. Alexander found that however well he directed his preparations

for an act, he lost his directions when he went ahead with the act itself.75 Two things will result in losing the

direction when ready for action are either hesitation or eagerness. It is possible to direct ones body or part of

it towards a certain point and yet to withhold movement. Similarly, it is possible to direct ones body towards

a certain point and to move it in space towards that point or to any other point of the compass.76 When we

are well directed, we do not hesitate once we have decided to act. Hesitation causes one to get tense at the

critical moment ofdoing. Eagerness, a kind of overreaction, muddies the goal and causes additional misuse

that will have the performers attention. The eagerness even pushes one to jump in trying something without

any preparation but actions only.

People always say try again and try harder!! You can do it. But, one is compelled to ask how long

does it take to succeed? Or perhaps one stumbles upon a superb performance by accident, but is unable to

re-create it after long term trying. When at first you dont succeed, never try again, at least not in the same

way,77 wrote Patrick Macdonald, an accomplished Alexander teacher trained directly by F. M. One should

modify the direction the second time we try again. For example, Try again with less anxiety. This time, play

75. Alcantara, Indirect Procedures, 72.


77. Ibid., 1.


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with your free legs.Non-doing the same thing again and again, we can more easily release ourselves to try

something new the next time.78 True freedom and ease in movement resides in non-doing.



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CHAPTER THREE

APPLICATION OF ALEXANDER TECHNIQUE IN CORTOTS STUDY EDITION OF

CHOPINS OP. 10 SET

Alfred Cortot established a systematic method of approaching technique in his study edition of Chopin s

Etudes. He endeavored to craft a concept of progressive practicing that rationally reduced difficult passages

to their basic elements in order to solve and refine technical problems. He thought that a musician needs to

build his craft from the ground up: starting with single sounds, adding simple scales and arpeggios,

continuing on to easy pieces, and further on to complex pieces, these last retaining in their core the simplicity

of their building-blocks.79

The Alexander Technique also aims to develop the ability to direct thoughts to action from simple steps

to complex movements. Every complex movement combines many steps, each step in the procedure, though,

remains simple and easy to analyze and learn.80

As a result, the Technique helps people release unnecessary

muscular tension when performing each action, restoring the functioning of the whole self along the laws of

Nature, according to Alexanders viewpoints. Thus, these ideas merit a discussion to learn how to use the self

well when working with the severe challenges of Chopins Etudessomething that tests even the most

talented and adept pianist. Here, Cortots preparatory exercises will be used as examples.

79. Alcantara, Indirect Procedures, 157.

80. Ibid., 158.


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Op, 10 no. 1 in C Major

This study emphasizes fast right-hand arpeggios in extended harmonic shapes. It requires stretches of

the fingers with extremely quick movement over the full extent of the keyboard. The left hand plays a

different role in that it accompanies the right hand with a long bass line in octaves. When studying this piece,

a pianist should know the stepwise procedure for training the right hand to stretch as soon as possible to

obtain the correct position of each figuration without stiffening the arms.

Before touching the keyboard, a warm-up exercise will free the arms. This can be done sitting down.

When seated in front of the keyboard, the weight of the torso is to be delivered downward onto the sitting

bones. These are located towards the base of the two pelvic bones, rather than outward towards the thigh

bones. It is then necessary to free the legs, knees, heels and feet; just letting them be there, instead of

controlling them in precise position. Free is the thought used to consciously direct the body in a healthy way

rather than in a habitual manner. Letting them be there with their natural workings is to stop wanting to

control. The wish to control the legs, knees, heels and feet does not lend itself however to the feeling of

security, but instead triggers a set of habitual misuses along with unnecessary tensions in the body.

After learning how to free the lower part of the body, the pianist should sit toward the edge of the bench.

Here, she can learn to balance on her sitting bones for more mobility and stability when needed. While seated

in this manner, the pianist must maintain awareness of the spine, not slumping or hollowing the back, but

directing her Primary Control. She then needs to let the neck and head move forward and up, allowing the


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back to lengthen and widen along the vertebrae, one after the other, then all together. That is how we

verbalize various directions for the Primary Control before the action.

Once there is balance between head, neck, and back while sitting, the pianist can begin to raise her right

hand up and onto the keyboard, but she does not play any key just yet. She first needs to free the right

shoulder and arm from unnecessary tension, moving this arm from the middle of the keyboard to the extreme

right edge, then back to the middle horizontally. When traveling over the keyboard, the pianist can practice

alternately stretching the fingers wide open and closing them back into a fist. Next, she is to make

well-coordinated use of the upper body and the whole self, becoming aware of things not to do.81 For

instance, when reaching over to the extreme right side of the keyboard, the pianist must not tighten the torso

and also not stiffen the arms. She must let the upper body move sideways while balancing on the sitting

bones and loosening the arms. There are four main joints in the arm instead of three as is commonly

understood. The one always missed is the sternoclavicular joint (the joint between the sternum and

collarbone).82 The other three are the shoulder joint, elbow joint and wrist joint. The structure of the arms

begins from the collarbones and shoulder blades, not from the upper arms. When working the arms using the

sternoclavicular joint, the arms are physically longer and more flexible than is generally understood. For the

elbow joint, it is important to not let the elbow move inwards. Instead, it must move away from the body and


82. Barbara Conable, What Every Musician Needs to Know about the Body: The Practical Application of Body Mapping toMaking Music, revised ed. (Oregon: Andover Press, 2000), 43.


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travel over the keyboard with fingers leading. In becoming aware of what not to do with the torso, arms and

joints, pianists are then able to use Inhibition (the conscious thoughts ofthing not to do) to control habitual

misuses of the body before they are employed. While keeping the right hand moving over the keyboard, now

play the sonorous octave bass line with the silent right-hand motion. Once the left-hand octave motion

interferes with one of the preceding steps in sitting preparation, it is important to stop for a while and review

the directions all the way back to the first step, sitting with well-coordinated Primary Control. The pianist

must strive for freedom of movement and awareness of habitual misuses of the body, as mentioned above,

while performing this warm-up exercise. Doing such an exercise each time before playing this etude is

helpful in releasing muscular tensions.

Likewise, focusing on Cortots preparatory exercises (see Fig. 3-1) is necessary to overcoming technical

difficulties. He simplifies the right-hand figurations from the first two measures into five different patterns

with the same C major harmonic format. Each pattern is rhythmically altered using duplet or triplet patterns.

Figure 3-1 Each pattern for three octaves up and down

For these figurations (Fig. 3-1), different degrees of stretches and different interval leaps between

fingers are required. Even with a small hand, the pianist can be in harmony with the mechanism of the


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keyboard. The pianist Heinrich Neuhaus, teacher of Emil Gilels, says that Small hands with a small stretch

have quite obviously to make much greater use of wrist, forearm and shoulder .83 The pianist should focus

on the interval of the tenth (C to E) in first exercise of Fig. 3-1. Each finger in turn should become a pivot for

the next note as the arm travels with a flexible wrist and floating elbow.84 If the wrist is stiffened for rotation,

the fingers will tighten also and not be able to move quickly up to performance tempo. In this case, more

notes will be missed because of misuse of the self, resulting in technical unreliability.85 From here, the

pianist needs to remember the sense the freedom, confidence and pleasure just performed minutes ago in

warm-up exercise. Only then can s/he direct the same principle to Cortots exercises without losing Primary

Control and good use of the whole self. In doing this, the pianist will finally achieve what she wants to

achieve.

Op, 10 no. 2 in A Minor

This etude is a technical study focusing on a rapid chromatic scale played throughout the piece by the

weakest fingersthe third, fourth and fifthof the right hand. The complete right hand part is the chromatic

melody accompanied by chord attacks played by the first and second fingers. The left hand plays a simple

alternating bass note and chord accompaniment. The technical difficulties to overcome in this etude are in

83. Heinrich Neuhaus, The Art of Piano Playing, trans. K. A. Leibovitch (London: Kahn & Averill, 2007), 109.

84. Harold Taylor, The Pianists Talent: A New Approach to Piano Playing Based on the Principles of F Matthias Alexanderand Raymond Thiberge (London: Kahn & Averill, 2002), 89.



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achieving firmness and even playing with the weakest fingers, moving with quick and sempre legato action

in chromatic scale degrees up and down the keyboard.

Cortot suggested that the right hand should be thought of as divided into two parts for their different

muscular actions and functioning: Part A is the active element of the piece, the chromatic melody, played

with the weaker fingers (3rd, 4th, or 5th); Part B is the accompanying element played with the remaining

fingers.86 Before practicing with real notes, the pianist should understand what the physical relationships are

between the fingers and whole arm, and how each part of the hand functions. There are two major bones in

the forearm: the ulna and radius (see Fig. 3-2). The ulna is the bone lined up with the pinky side of the

forearm. The forearm also uses the ulna as an axis to rotate on in order to make the palm move down and up.

The other bone is the radius, the bone on the thumb side of the forearm. The radius is somewhat like the ulna,

only it involves the 2nd, 3rd and 4th fingers. About the wrist, there are eight bones associated with the carpal

tunnel. If those little bones remain healthy and work with each other safely, the pianist can move the hand in

any direction with great mobility and freedom.

86. Chopin, 12 Studies, Op. 10, for Piano, ed. Alfred Cortot, 14.


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Figure 3-2 The skeleton of a forearm and hand

Knowing this, the pianist should be able to sense the relationship between the use and functioning of the

hand and application of these ideas in preparatory exercises. Cortot suggests using a two-finger group (3-4,

4-3, 4-5, and 5-4) or three-finger group (3-4-5, 4-5-3 and 5-3-4) in the C chromatic scale up and down.

Regarding the legato action, he suggests avoid[ing] any exaggerated raising of the fingers, or contraction or

stiffness of the wrist,[but instead, suggests remaining mindful of] the fingers not playing [yet staying]

completely relaxed87 when meeting various finger crossings. Pianists are to think about how the fingers are

supported with strength by the ulna and radius, not the knuckles while working on the chromatic scale with

Cortots fingering groups, so the fifth finger is made stronger by its relationship to the ulna and the same goes

for the rest of the fingers by their relationship to the radius.88 When she can play with ease in different

fingering combinations, s/he can add the accompaniment with their thumb and 2nd finger.

87. Chopin, Op. 10, for Piano, ed. Cortot, 14.

88. Conable, What Every Musician Needs to Know about the Body, 68.


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The accompanied part should be played with a light tone, like that of apizzicato articulation. It is also

important to imagine the chords being plucked rather than struck, like a string player would do. 89 Before

pressing down on the chord for each downbeat and top melody, the pianist should pause a second to prepare

the place where the double notes are played and think of a way she can articulate the hand as well. (see Fig.

3-3).

Figure 3-3 Excerpt from Chopin, 12 Studies, Op. 10 no 2, ed. Cortot

Upon understanding how the ulna and radius function in the hand, the pianist will acquire support from

them as well as the ability to move the fingers with greater ease. To put an end to working with the fingers

mechanically, which creates unnecessary tensions in the arms and shoulders, it is important to visualize and

prepare for the motion or gesture each finger needs to articulate before acting on it. The pauses before each

chord in Fig. 3-3 provide space to adjust the fingers, hands, and arms as needed. Here, each break is to be

used to direct the whole self and the localized parts, prepare for the next action, and play deliberately when

facing the difficult passages.



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Op, 10 no. 3 in E Major

The technical training in this study is similar to that of no. 2. Polyphonic and legato expressions can

come across perfectly, depending on how well the tone-value of each finger can be created.90 The right hand

plays a double role in the top melodic line and inner accompaniment, counterpoint to the crossing-accent bass

line by the left hand. In this slow cantabile etude, the main melody should be played with more color and

expression than the other textures.91

Cortot uses some preparatory exercises to improve the independence of each finger (see Fig. 3-4). He

also points out that a rule must be followed without fail while practicing this polyphonic technique: i.e. the

weight of the hand should lean towards the fingers which play the predominant musical part, and the muscles

of the fingers playing an accessory part should be relaxed and remain limp. 92

Figure 3-4 Excerpts from Chopin, 12 Studies, Op. 10 no 3, ed. Cortot

Cortots ideas can also be adjusted with more of an Alexanderian technique. The firmness of each finger

comes from good use of the hands, arms, and shoulders. The weight of the hand should be supported by the


91. Taylor, The Pianists Talent, 90.



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back. When the weight of the hand leans toward the fifth finger for the top singing line, the elbow should

shift outward, rotating the forearm, and freeing the wrist and upper arm. Knowing this, and mindful that these

motions are small and nuanced, gentle movements are especially useful in articulating this etude in its

relatively slow tempo.

In making the melodic line as expressive as desired, the pianist should also know how to transmit

pressure from one finger to the next in order to create the legato playing s/he wishes to convey. Before trying

this on the keyboard however, it is essential to first understand that pressure to the fingers comes from

gravity of the finger itself and also the whole arm, and not from the attack of an individual finger. If [you]

try to make use offinger work in order to amplify the upper notes, [your] playing will become dry,

colourless and clumsy.93 Therefore each finger is to be used in turn as a pivot point to prepare the action for

the next key and transmit pressure to the next finger. Each tiny motion of fingers in the transmission of

pressure requires all other localized actions of hands, arms, and shoulders to be well-coordinated.

Cortot also mentions that when practicing this polyphonic technique (see Fig. 3-4), the muscles of the

fingers playing an accessory part should be relaxed and remain limp.94 But relaxation of the fingers does

not mean floppy. Even for an accessory part, the fingers require normal muscle tone to be held up and

perched on a key. Practiced pianists press down on a key with a minimum of necessary tension, especially if

the action is light. Furthermore, they are able to preconceive the degree of necessary tension for each finger,

93. Taylor, The Pianists Talent, 91.



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then allow it to remain alive in order to play with the degree of volume and variety of tone color they choose

to exhibit in this polyphonic study.

Op, 10 no. 4 in C-sharp Minor

The main texture of this etude is written with tumultuous sixteenth-note runs passing from one hand to

the other. Sometimes there is a transition for the pianist to prepare a hand for another rapid run, but

sometimes not. Among the difficulties to overcome in this study is how to switch hand motion from a

conjunct to a disjunct position quickly, without interfering with evenness of the fingers. It is also in

understanding how to transfer the balanced tone constantly when passing from one hand to the other

hand.

Cortot wrote the first exercise (see Fig. 3-5) to practice sixteenth-note runs in semitone and whole-tone

figurations. This is a conjunct motion similar to the idea of bar 1 with the right hand and bar 5 with the left

hand.



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When practicing these conjunct runs in a quick tempo, it is helpful to imagine holding a small ball in the

hand with a natural curved shape and without tension in each knuckle. The wrist is allowed to move up a

little bit higher than usual in order to pass the note between the black key and the white key within a small

space. Following a fingering pattern, for example 3-4-1-2, on the very first figuration with the right hand, the

next step is to make a small contoured circle with the hand, wrist, forearm and elbow, moving with a slight

up and down motion in the upper arm. If these actions happen simultaneously and smoothly without

interfering with Primary Control, the pianist can be sure that localized parts, and even the whole body, are

being well-directed by their mind and used well.

Before getting into bar 3 in this etude, pianists should learn how to shift the motion from a conjunct to a

disjunct position quickly. Learning inhibition when something is desired, wanted or wished for is a sure way

to achieve freedom and let go of conscious control in finger work. In the conjunct exercise, time should be

spent getting used to the hand position. It is not possible to jump into a totally different motion without

re-directing thoughts. As a reminder, inhibition means taking a moment before execution of an action to

re-direct thoughts away from habitual misuses of the body. That is, the pianist should stop end-gaining,

which causes misuse of the self and neglects other possible means to achieve the goal.

Before getting into the disjunct position in bar 3, it is necessary to conceive the gesture needed for the

figuration. The pianist should use inhibition to let go of motivations to get the notes right and instead

well-direct good use of the whole self and active parts of the body, such as an arm or hand, with their mind.


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Alexander believed in the selfs innate wisdom to get things right if it is allowed to do so without undue force

or eagerness. Then she is to play bar 3, letting the fingers go without hesitation. Subsequently the pianist will

learn how not to worry about the outcome of what is played, and instead enjoy the sensation ofuncontrol

as well as the progress of achieving freedom.95 The pianist should not be afraid to go wrong. Soon, the

shifting motions from a conjunct to a disjunct position will come out as smoothly and naturally as she likes

them to be by well-directing from mind without misuse of the body (i.e. over contraction) and possible injury

or discomfort.

Returning to the difficulty the pianist faces in how to consistently transfer a balanced tone from one

hand to another, an idea from the Alexander Techniquewhich may help to balance the hands is called the

bilateral transfer. According to this concept, the use of the left arm always affects the use of the right arm,

and vice versa.96 Once acquiring good co-ordinated use of the right-hand, the left hand should be able to

function in the same manner. It will then feel increasingly easy to train either hand with the mind. In

transferring the balanced tone from hand to hand with similar sixteen-note runs in this etude, it is important

to remember that both hands function in the same way when working. They just happen to be in different

registers and playing at different times. If the right hand works well, then the left-hand should too. This is the

concept you choose to trust, then both hands can make it with the solid mind.

95. Alcantara,Indirect Procedures, 76-77.

96. Ibid., 139.


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Op, 10 no. 5 in G-flat Major

Nicknamed the Black Key Etude, this piece is one of Chopins most popular works. This study is

characterized by its black key arpeggiated melody played by the right hand throughout the entire piece,

except for one F-natural in bar 66 that is necessary for the harmonic progression. The left hand has its own

melodic line within a number of chords and octaves. The touch here must be light and even with sparkling

action for both hands. In this etude, the fingers should be trained to become familiar with the black-key hand

position, just like Cortot recommends in his study edition.

Cortot later left pianists with a number of challenging exercises (see Fig. 3-6) for black key progressions.

By practicing these variants, the pianist should learn how to control both hands with greater ease before

getting into the actual study.



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Of course, these exercises will work at a slow tempo without missing notes. But how will it play when

using a faster tempo, or performance tempo, as it is written in Vivace? In this case, attempting to practice

harder on finger work in a quick tempo may result in misuse of the hands and body. Work on this study can

easily lend itself to habitual lifting of the shoulders, curving of the back, shortening of the back and

contracting of the head when over-focusing on fingering in order to perfect performance. As a result, this

creates excessive tension in the whole self. Here, faulty sensory awareness could be one of the reasons you

could misuse your body in habitual way.

Some practitioners may assert that if the piece was composed in G major, it would be easier to play.

That is because most pianists are more used to playing the G major arpeggio pattern more than the black key

arpeggio patterns for this piece. Therefore, there is a tendency to perform gestures with the accumulated

muscle memory which has been experienced many times already. From here, hypothetically speaking, these

pianists might tend to practice this Black Key etude using habitual experience applied from familiarity with

G major. The player is unaware of the fact that she has reverted to an incorrect habitual experience and

misuse of the body results in something Alexander callsfaulty sensory perception.

To improve sensory awareness, the pianist must stop playing in a manner which feels right (the G

major). Go Back to Cortots black-key exercises again as if for the very first time. When you change your

use, you go inevitably through new experiences and sensations.97 Explore the hand positions and the



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distances between each intervals for the black key as a fresh experience. As a result, the totally new

experience of learning black-key positioning will consciously awaken the mind and re-educate the fingers

with new muscle experiences. In the end, the pianist will be better able to direct sensory awareness with new

learning experiences and more reliable guidance. The Black Key etude is not something tough to overcome;

it is just something new to get used to.

Op, 10 no. 6 in E-flat Minor

Like Op. 10 no. 3, this is a slow cantabile etude that can be thought of as a passionate lament. This

etude features a constant counterpoint running through the middle of the texture. Three distinct voices here

require individual tone color to accomplish an intense polyphony. The upper voice is a mournful and flowing

melody supported by the lower bass line. A thoughtful and chromatic inner voice then weaves between the

other voices to maintain a continuous wave of sixteenth-notes.

From Cortots notations, the particular difficulty in this study is the individual tone of each

simultaneously sounding melodic line, and the balancing between lines. Each voice should preserve its own

timbre and its own freedom of rhythm according to the part concerned. 98 If one just plays the top melody,

together with the lower bass line, it is not hard to project sound outward with the full weight of the fingers.

The main point here is to learn how to let the chromatic inner voice join in without interfering with the



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graceful flowing of the top melody and sustained bass line. Cortot recommended an exercise (see Fig. 3-7)

that doubles the inner voice in order to achieve a special attack for each sixteenth note.


The chromatic inner voice is difficult to play evenly and with expressive intensity.99 It is noteworthy to

remember here that fifth fingers are stronger than one usually considers them to be because the ulna bone,

lined up with the pinky side of the hand, helps the little fingers maintain strength. In Cortots exercise of Fig.

3-7, the pianist can press the fifth finger down on each downbeat, release the tension from the fifth finger and

just hold it effortlessly. Then, immediately transfer the strength of the fifth finger to the inner voice with

proper weight given to each finger as needed for a gentle articulation of each note. This creates an intense

(not too intense) chromatic wave according to the necessary strength of fingers. While attacking the repeated

note in the inner voice in exercise of Fig. 3-7, the forearm and wrist should rotate for the repeating finger.

The inner voice will therefore sound vivid and clear due to the natural workings of the hand motions and

proper support from the pinky side of the ulna. The timbre created for the chromatic inner voice depends on

three things: 1) the range of the rotation, 2) how much weight is used to press the finger down, and 3) what



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quality of action is used by the finger. If she knows well the physical relationship between hands and arms

when functioning in each tiny motion, the pianist can then produce the tone s/he likes.

Op, 10 no. 7 in C Major

This study has a special technical difficulty in its perpetually changing intervals. Many pianists may

think that progress is harder with such a tempo as that ofVivace. The right-hand intervals alternate between

smaller intervals (2nd, 3rd, 4th or 5th) and extended intervals (larger than previous one) with the lower note

repeated. Another difficulty to overcome is how to treat the lower repeating note lightly, but still perceptible

in a succession of double-note figurations.

In Chapter 2, I discussed how Alexander discovered what he was doing to himself that caused his vocal

problems. He developed a procedure to isolate his actions step by step and master the difficulties one after

another. This idea can also be applied to solving the technical difficulties of perpetually changing intervals in

this etude. For instance, take the opening of this etude using the right-hand figuration only (see Fig. 3-8):

Figure 3-8 Excerpt of Chopin, 12 Studies, Op. 10 no 7, bar 1


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From the standpoint of compositional writing, each basic musical figure contains universal variables,

such as rhythm, articulation, harmony, melodic contour, pulse, meteretc. Which elements change and

which elements stay the same need to be analyzed in order to clarify the essence of this piece before

practicing it on the keyboard.100 Check the right-hand figuration in the first measure for example (see Fig.

3-8). The rhythm, articulation, pulse and meter stay the same (while the sixteenth-note figurations are also

maintained throughout the entire piece). If two sixteenth notes are in a unit, there is a single chord change for

each eighth. (see 1st and 2nd mm. of Fig. 3-8). The only variables that change on each eighth beat are

harmony and melodic contour. All other elements, including rhythm, articulations and pulse do not change.

Practicing the harmonic progressions a few times allows the pianist to become familiar with the hand

position change while both the first and second fingers hold the lower note (2nd m. of Fig. 3-8). Once aware

of the composers choice of variables, the pianist can sense the simplicity of the rules and set the rules of

variables in her mind before applying them. She can then continue to recall the harmonic changes, this time

separating the first and second fingers for the repeating action (3 rd m. of Fig. 3-8). These two fingers of

repeating notes are to alternate quickly and effortlessly as if they are not noticed. If there is trust that the

fingers can be directed and ordered with a simple thought from the mind, the repeating note will be there,

clearly and precisely. Also helpful are the Alexanderian steps listed below which should be followed when

practicing Fig. 3-8: (1) Be aware of Primary Control, the relationship between head, neck and back; (2) Be



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mindful of the variables that should change in the figure; (3) Before directing activity, the pianist needs to

inhibit habitual practices that result in unconscious rushing; (4) The pianist must direct from the mind where

the position of each chord is and how the finger acts while repeating notes; and finally, (5) She needs to act

and play without hesitation. Progressing through these points step by step will help the pianist know well

what she practices.

Returning to Cortots exercises in harmonic progressions (see Fig. 3-9), the pianist can try to play them

using a quick tempo but choose to pause a while before the harmony changes. The pause offers more time to

prepare for the next action and direct the fingers where to go before each change. That is what Alexander

called think of, in silence. Good preparations before actions secure the good use of self.


Op, 10 no. 8 in F Major

After the light-hearted and delicate Etude no. 7, comes a sunny fanfare. It begins with a brilliant trill in

the right-hand that overflows into rapid sixteenth-note runs along the length of the keyboard. As with no. 7,

the left hand contains the prima

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Chopin Piano Technique